Fenwick Island businesses are aiming to make Friday a big shopping night. The local businesses have followed in the footsteps of other towns in the region by starting the new Fenwick First Fridays events, continuing Nov. 3 and Dec. 1.

Coastal Point • Kerin Magill: Allen Harim broke ground on its new hatchery in Dagsboro on Wednesday, Oct. 25. Local dignitaries were on hand for the event.Allen Harim, a South Korea-based chicken producer with several facilities on Delmarva, broke ground on Wednesday, Oct. 25, on a $22 million hatchery in Dagsboro.

Gov. John Carney attended the ceremony, taking a moment to hold one of the chicks that had chirped from their basket on a nearby table while Carney joined Allen Harim officials, as well as local, state and county officials, in celebrating the beginning of the hatchery construction.

“This is a big deal. This is a really big deal,” Carney said. The governor emphasized the importance of “making sure we cultivate our poultry industry and our individual poultry farmers” in Delaware.

Rory DeWeese, Allen Harim senior director of live operations, said the 70,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility will “encompass” the current building. The hatchery will be capable of hatching 2.5 million eggs each week.

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Christine Webb and Kathy Twining-Bozman show off the new digs in Bethany Massage &amp;amp; Healing Arts’ new location at 33298 Coastal Highway, Bethany Beach.The staff at Bethany Massage & Healing Arts are taking a breath after the fast pace of the summer season — their first in their spacious new location. Having moved into their new digs just before Memorial Day, they are now taking advantage of the slower seasons to look at new ways to use all of that new space.

With six massage rooms, including two that are set up for couples, as well as an aesthetician’s room, a meditation space/waiting room and a prep room, owner/massage therapist Kathy Twining-Bozman said, “We love it here! We are so excited to be here and not be tripping over each other!”

Twining-Bozman said she was faced with having to move the 28-year-old business, which she has owned for three years, when the owners of the Hickman Plaza, where Bethany Massage had been located, decided to redevelop the property.

She said she had driven past the location just north of the McDonald’s on Route 1 several times before she stopped in and at her first glance, she knew it was perfect. The best part, she said, was that no construction was necessary to transform the former real estate office into her massage business.

Pizzazz features unique décor and gifts in Fenwick

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Pizzazz by the Bay owner Victoria Thanner in her Fenwick Island shop.This tiny shop in Fenwick Island is living up to its name. Pizzazz by the Bay isn’t trying to be the ordinary gift shop. Visitors and locals are coming there to find eclectic gifts and home décor by local artists.

Never behind the counter for very long, Victoria Thanner greets every customer with a smile. She loves being right there, helping them find the perfect item, or picturing it in their home.

With so many people still building and renovating in coastal Delaware, “I want to do something different … showcase local artists and pieces,” Thanner said. “People are looking for that ‘wow’ piece.”

Some of the more striking sculptures begin with driftwood: a gentle curving sailboat, a rough sea turtle and tall lamps strung with Edison bulbs and ship’s rope.

The Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce announced on Wednesday the resignation of executive director Kristie Maravalli, who will become the director of development for the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation. Lauren Weaver, currently the events and member-relations manager for the Chamber, will assume the role of executive director effective Monday, Aug. 7.

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Party Decor &amp;amp; More owner Jim Schnepf-Pratt poses for a photo at his new location in Ocean View.Ocean View now has a party store to call its very own, as a Rehoboth Beach-based business has opened a second location in Ocean View, expanding its offerings for the needs of the area’s growing communities.

Party Decor & More has been in business in Rehoboth for four years, and owner Jim Schnepf-Pratt said it has been very successful and popular amongst that community. And on June 21, the second location of Party Decor & More opened in Ocean View.

“Ocean View chose us,” Schnepf-Pratt said of why he decided to expand his business in the area.

He said he was initially approached by the property owner, who asked him if he was interested in opening another location at 29 Atlantic Avenue, where Curves was formerly located. He visited the location four times before making the final decision to move in.

Coastal Point • Marissa McCloy: Jimmy and Kathy Guido are providing the Clarksville area with organic produce on their farm, Berry Lovers Farm.Berry Lovers Farm sticks to its roots by farming organically grown produce in Clarksville.

This summer, heirloom cherry tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggs, eggplant and sweet peppers are for sale at the Berry Lovers Farm stand, which is only open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

The farm and stand are located at 31897 Organic Growers Lane, just off Route 26, near the Route 17 intersection. The eggs sold at the stand come from chickens that live on the farm and are fed only organic food grown there.

Husband and wife Jimmy and Kathy Guido bought the 11-acre parcel in 2015. They said it was difficult to find a piece of land for their organic farm, because most of the land in the area has been used for conventional farming. There is a three-year waiting period before conventionally-farmed land can be farmed under the term “organic.”

Coastal Point photos • Tyler Valliant: Dale Clifton, owner of DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum in Fenwick Island, shows off some of the museum’s historic artifacts.Mountainous waves swell overhead as a Spanish fleet drifts helplessly in the storm. Torrential rain pummels the boats, scattering the soaked crews as they yank on ropes and bark panicked orders. Below deck, about $14 million worth of silver and gold glitters in the half-light as water begins to sweep into the hull with purposeful, destructive force.

It’s July 31, 1715, and all seems lost.

But it isn’t. Because about 300 years after the ships were smashed against the coral reefs and sunk, a man named Dale Clifton would help to uncover their stories, and the stories of many other shipwrecks, and make it his mission to share them with the public.

As the owner/director of the DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum in Fenwick Island, Clifton was able to transform every child’s fantasy of discovering buried undersea treasure into not only a career, but a fascinating tool with which he can bring history to life.

A small but atmospheric museum located above the Sea Shell Shop, the DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum is packed with artifacts from some of the world’s most famous wrecks. Cutlery and stained-glass windows from the Titanic and the R.M.S. Republic rest there, as well as a trove of artifacts, including the Queen of Spain’s wedding chain from the long-elusive ship the Atocha.

Everything from coral-encrusted cutlasses and skull-adorned pirates’ rings to miraculously-preserved Aztec gold statues can be found in the glass cases. To the left of the museum entrance, a laboratory sits so that museum-goers can actually watch Clifton in the process of cleaning and preserving artifacts.

Coastal Point • Marissa McCloy: The new ‘Walking Dead’ game transforms the zombie television series into a fast-paced arcade game. Right, Arcade tickets already have the playland’s new Shore Fun name and logo.This summer, Arnie’s Playland is lighting up Bethany Beach with several new digital games and looking to put the Shore Fun back in the downtown arcade.

Space Invaders Frenzy is the most popular of the new games, according to manager Eric Esterson. The game has an 8-foot LED display, dual cockpit seating and mounted gun cannons.

Another addition is “The Walking Dead” — a game based on the AMC television show — in which players shoot the undead with crossbow controllers.

The arcade’s newest pinball machine is a “Ghostbusters”-themed game.

These changes are all part of the updates put into motion by the arcade’s new owners, Esterson said.

Arnie’s Playland has served up family fun for 34 years. There were once two locations, but now the sole arcade location is on Garfield Parkway in Bethany.

In addition to the new digital games, the arcade also has six new Skee-Ball machines.

“We currently have 15 Skee Ball machines, but we are trying to get down to about eight,” said Esterson, who added that Skee Ball is still popular among customers, even with the more technologically-advanced game options now available.

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Shrimp and grits is just one of the fresh dishes made a Good Earth Market.It seems fitting that an organic market has grown at such a… well… organic pace since it first opened 14 years ago.

Good Earth Organic Market in Clarksville and, more recently, Rehoboth Beach has now added dinners and events to its growing list of offerings, and early indications are that the new venture will blossom like the rest of the business has.

Much of that confidence comes because of, and from, the market’s new chef, Nino Mancari, who comes to Good Earth after years in some of the area’s most successful restaurants.

With the Good Earth kitchen garden in place and literally buzzing with activity these days, and with a number of successful farm dinners held on the grounds in recent years, owner Susan Ryan has expanded the vision for the business to include not only dinners served on the premises Wednesday through Saturday evenings, but also “pop-up” happy-hours on Fridays. Good Earth, which already hosts weddings and other special celebrations, will now provide food for those events in-house.

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: From left, Anchors Aweigh Entertainment owners Jason and Summer Phillips are working with Kingsley Orchards owners Tony and Meghan Morgan on hosting a Family Fun Day at the orchards this weekend.For years, Frankford’s old fruit farm was a jungle of weeds set among the cornfields on Blueberry Lane. Only the birds and the locals knew that, somewhere under the tangle, blueberries were still a hidden treasure.

But now, Kingsley Orchards has re-opened the beloved blueberry patch once known as Ryan’s Berry Farm. The farm had changed hands several times before the Meghan and Tony Morgan family picked it up at a 2016 sheriff sale.

Kingsley is an old family name that stems from Meghan’s paternal family tree. The husband-and-wife team began clearing the land that fall, and Kingsley Orchards opened in mid-June as a you-pick blueberry farm with a retail storefront. So people can venture into the fields or quickly swing by the retail store.

Tony Morgan regularly buys and flips land from sheriff sales. But housing developments flew out of his mind when he actually saw the blueberry bushes, curtained by 10 years of weeds and trees.

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Michael Thanner and ‘Gracie’ are bringing some land and sea style to Fenwick Island.Dress like John F. Kennedy. Speak like Ernest Hemingway. Work like Ralph Lauren. And party like Gatsby.

That’s the mantra of Michael Thanner and the MGT & Co. Toggery, which recently launched in Fenwick Island to offer the “Low Country” a taste of the high life when it comes to premier men’s clothing and the latest in luxury fashion.

While the Ralph Lauren lifestyle and fictitious Jay Gatsby may have been a very real inspiration for Thanner and his new experience-centered men’s boutique, catering to weddings in West Egg isn’t the only focus at MGT & Co.

Whether it’s picking up a dress shirt from Mizzen+Maine for dinner at Just Hooked right next door or a pair of swim trunks from Rhythm for trying to hook dinner at the drive-on beach across the street, the Toggery aims to keep their wide-range of customers covered, literally, with everything from headwear to footwear.

“We’ve got everything you could need from head to toe — there’s something for everyone,,” Thanner said. “It’s classic, it’s American and it’s simple, but at the same time, it’s very unique.”

It was through his various travels that Thanner formed the concept behind what’s become an eclectic selection of contemporary classics at MGT & Co.

Coastal Point • Shaun M. Lambert: The crew at Sedona is ready to celebrate their 25th anniversary this summer with some all new offerings in Bethany Beach.It’s a greeting as simple as it is signature.

On every warm summer night since 1993, Marian Parrott has welcomed every one of her guests in the same warm way: “Good evening, and welcome to Sedona.”

With the award-winning Bethany Beach restaurant currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Parrott will lend the familiarity of the phrase to the title of her upcoming opus, “25 Years of Good Food & Good Evenings.”

But while the book will be a celebration of the restaurant’s past — even getting into the location’s World War II days as the Collins Tea Room — in honor of their 25th year, the team at Sedona is equally celebrating their future with summer specials, the formation of the “Sedona Social Club” (coming this fall), a revamped menu and a completely renovated restaurant aesthetic.

Coastal Point • Shaun M. Lambert: The chefs at the new Bluecoast in Rehoboth from left, Scott Viselli, Doug Ruley and Jason Diettrick.Choosing the right menu took about 10 months. Choosing the right blueprint for their now 10th restaurant took nearly that long, too.

But even with the layout designed entirely around the restaurant’s open kitchen — setting the stage for the chefs of SoDel Concepts more so than ever before — choosing the right chefs for the job took hardly any time at all for SoDel Concepts President Scott Kammerer and Vice President/Corporate Chef Doug Ruley.

“It was important to us to make the open kitchen a focal point, so you could see the action and from every seat,” said Kammerer of the new Bluecoast location on Route 1 in Rehoboth Beach, which celebrated its grand opening earlier this month.

“An open kitchen connects you more to the food and connects you more to the chefs. We’re a chef-driven company at SoDel Concepts. The chefs are the stars — and these are three of our biggest.”

Coastal Point photo • Shaun M. Lambert: Sandy Pony owners Brea Reeves and Ben Wang, top, show off a dozen of their made-to-order donuts.They may have been still dodging rice, but for the young newlywed couple, it was time to make the doughnuts.

After saying their “I do’s” on June 3, Ben Wang and Brea Reeves were off to the Bethany Beach area just one week later, for the grand opening of their new food truck, Sandy Pony Donuts, on Saturday, June 10, trading in a honeymoon suite for a sweet honeymoon.

“You could say this is our honeymoon,” said Reeves, with a laugh. “We literally are together every second of every day now.”

“Hey, it was her decision to want to work with me,” added Wang, joking back. “I’m probably the harder one to work with, because I always manage to get in the way somehow. But it’s just always worked out.”

Coastal Point photo • Shaun M. Lambert: Cassidy Baker, left, and Brittany Baker show off one of the 3BB Cafe's new homemade ‘cake-pops’ and croissants. The name Three Blonde Bakers was already all but famous along the Bethany Beach boardwalk, whether it be for their scoop selection of Vanderwende Farm Creamery classics or ever-changing array of off-the-wall homemade fudge flavors.

But the now-officially-baking blonde Bakers are no longer just fudging around when it comes to that name being literal, recently launching their latest boardwalk venture with the 3BB Café in the space right next door.

“Cassidy has always wanted to open up her own bakery,” said Brittany Baker of her younger sister and Baker-family baking authority, Cassidy Baker, who learned her trade at Ruthie’s Bakery in Bethany. “When the Orheleins [Michael and Hope] told us that they were moving the gallery across the mall, we knew we had to go for it.”

“People would always come up and asked about baked goods, with the name,” added Cassidy Baker with a laugh. “It’s definitely nice to finally have an established bakery now.”

Top Dog Grill aims to serve up something new in Bethany Beach

Coastal Point photos • Shaun M. Lambert: Owners Darin Dryden and Adam Lehman show off some of Top Dog Grill's offerings.They may not be saving the skies in the 1986 action-thriller “Top Gun,” but Darin Dryden and Adam Lehman might as well be Goose and Maverick when it comes to saving Bethany Beach from what they see as the usual options of boardwalk dining — and their mission to serve up the town’s “Top Bun.”

With Dryden’s experience in business and Lehman’s in the culinary arts, the two long-time friends teamed up last summer with the aim of offering the area something new, opening the doors to Top Dog Grill in June of 2016.

“We’re trying to offer a good, affordable option in Bethany, and trying to do it a little differently than everybody else,” said Lehman.

“It’s something that we’ve wanted to do for a while,” added Dryden. “Both of us are here every day. He’s got the culinary background. I’ve got the business background. My wife’s an accountant, she does the books. It’s a good team.”

Coastal Point • Shaun M. Lambert: Kevin Martin and Stephanie Baker show off some of the new menu items at Taco Taco.They’re doing it quick. They’re doing it simple. They’re doing it the customer’s way.

And now, they’re doing it for breakfast, too.

Kevin Martin and Stephanie Baker first introduced their “good food fast” philosophy to Millville with Taco Taco in the winter of 2016, enjoying a successful first summer season while offering up “fresh Mex” fare for both lunch and dinner, whether dining in or ordering out.

That’s the same concept that Taco Taco will stay true to this summer, with the addition of the all-new a.m. menu-options making their burrito-board debut by popular demand.

“Just about anything that you could want for breakfast, we’ve got it here,” said Kevin Martin. “Everyone who’s tried it has had nothing but good things to say. People are coming back. We’ve even had people come in from California and the Southwest and tell us that it was the best breakfast burrito they’ve ever had.”

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Head chef Celaso Morales, left, owner Jeff Hamer, second from right, and Director of Operations Briana Roviske gather with the crew during their opening-night celebration last Thursday, May 25.It’s what Jeff Hamer, president and founder of the Fins Hospitality Group, likes to refer to as “being the rising tide.”

The long-time restaurateur has built his success directly around that of his “Fins family,” ever since his days of launching his very first venture in Rehoboth Beach.

“That’s why we like to say, ‘It’s the rising tide,’” Hamer explained. “If we can provide good-paying jobs, we can lift the people up around us, then the community just becomes stronger. [Our employees] all have families, homes in the areas, mortgages, their kids are in school — they have a stake in the community.

“That’s really been our blessing — it’s not about me when people say they love Fins,” he continued. “It’s the employees. They’re the ones that do it. I come up with the ideas and kind of paint broad strokes, and they’re the ones that make it happen. They make Fins, they really do.”

New restaurant at state park offers inlet and ocean views, beachfront eats

Coastal Point • Submitted: Big Chill Beach Club has a view of the Indian River Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.Like a summer sun rising above the Atlantic Ocean, the large yellow umbrella atop the concession building at Delaware Seashore State Parks concession stand signals a fresh start.

The umbrella is the signature piece of the new Big Chill Beach Club; it sits atop the venue’s glass-enclosed eating area. That area is surrounded by a large deck, where diners can enjoy 360-degree views encompassing the ocean, the Indian River Inlet Bridge and the Indian River Bay.

Those who would rather keep their feet in the sand can do so by taking their food back to the beach or by sitting at tables in the sand at the new eatery.

A partnership between Delaware State Parks and La Vida Hospitality Group, the Big Chill Beach Club brings to the venture the group’s experience with its other projects, Crooked Hammock Brewery, Restaurant & Backyard Beer Garden; Fork+Flask at Nage; Taco Reho food truck; and the original Big Chill Cantina.

Corner bank has existed since 1903

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant : The PNC Bank branch in Selbyville will close June 16.Selbyville is losing one of its two banks this spring. The PNC Bank at the corner of Church Street and Main Street will permanently close its doors at 3 p.m. on Friday, June 16.

The ATM will remain on-site at 1 West Church Street immediately after the office closes, although there is no timeframe for that availability. It’s a higher-functioning ATM that can process deposits.

Why is the bank closing? Basically, PNC representatives said, people use machines more for banking, and PNC doesn’t need a two-story office building on Church Street anymore.

“Over the last several years, we have been going over an evaluation of our overall branch network,” said PNC spokesperson Marcey Zwiebel. “We’ve also just been looking at data that says the way customers use branches is changing. They’re increasingly using the convenient and alternative channels” — online, mobile or ATM banking — “for many of the basic transactions that they used to use the branch for… We’ve been taking a look at how we can support our customers when and how and where they want.”

Fresh ingredients, same recipe for owners of Pomodoro Pizzeria in Bethany Beach

Coastal Point • Shaun M. Lambert Rose and Brian Conte hold up a white spinach with ricotta, fresh garlic and olive oil pizza in their new pizzeria in Bethany Beach.It was an offer that they couldn’t refuse.

After purchasing a home in Millville By the Sea six years ago, the search had been on for the Naples, Italy-born couple turned lifetime restauranteurs in all things Italian cuisine, Rose and Brian Conte.

After the success of Café Palermo — the Wilmington-based establishment that they had owned and operated together for 13 years — the Contes had been searching for the right location to introduce the cuisine of their home country to what they were hoping to make their new home, in Bethany Beach.

But after trying to find that perfect location for more than five years, it finally found them instead, on a boardwalk day last spring.

“We just happened to be walking around on a Sunday, and then we saw it. When we saw this spot, I said, ‘Brian — this is it.’ I knew right away,” said Rose Conte of the now official location of the Pomodoro Pizzeria, next to Dickey’s Frozen Custard just off the Bethany Beach boardwalk.

Big Fish Grill makes its way to Ocean View with new location

Coastal Point • Shaun M. Lambert: The Big Fish Grill front-of-house team is ready for action in Ocean View.One fish, two fish, red fish, new Fish.

Fans of the Big Fish Restaurant Group may already be keen on the group’s well-established area staples, including the classic American cuisine of the Summer House Saloon on Rehoboth Avenue and farm-to-table concept of Salt Air in Rehoboth Beach; the three Big Fish Grill locations in Rehoboth Beach, Wilmington and Glen Mills, Pa.; and the Crab House, Bella Coast Italian Kitchen, Big Fish Seafood Market; and the list going on.

But despite 10 unique operations, and nine of them in the First State, a Big Fish endeavor from restauranteurs and brothers Eric and Norman Sugrue had yet to make its way down to the southernmost Delaware beaches until this past winter.

Coastal Point • Shaun M. Lambert : The Lord’s Landscaping team has been serving the community for nearly 40 years, and continuesIn 1972, after graduating from college and moving to Sussex County, Bill Lord was not planning to open a landscaping business.

“When I first moved here, I was a teacher. I was just not destined to be a teacher. My wife Donna was. Her teaching job gave me the flexibility to try to do something I really wanted to do.”

Lord left education and answered a want-ad in the paper, and worked for a landscaper in Lewes for two years. He then decided to go out on his own and, with the help of his wife’s grandfather, Amos McCabe, was able to use for his budding business some of the property in Millville that once housed Delaware Quality Feeds.

“Amos let me use a little corner office there and a little patch of ground to store some stuff,” recalled Lord. “I’d watch out after him, do some jobs for him. He never had a son… He loved me right from the get-go. He took me hunting. I had never been hunting before, you know. I’m from Philadelphia.”

“We offer both ‘surf’ and ‘turf,’” said physical therapist Lauren Nuttle — referring to the pool-based aquatherapy available at Aquacare, as well as the “land-based” therapies offered there, too.

While the aquatherapy is obvious from the name, Nuttle said, the office offers more traditional physical therapy techniques, as well as some new ones that have just come into use in the past several years.

Nuttle said she loves the breadth of services offered at Aquacare because “I don’t have to tell someone, ‘Oh, we don’t have that here,’ or ‘We can’t do that here.’” The depth of the services allows staff at Aquacare to accept a wide range of patients, Nuttle said.

She recalled one favorite patient who had suffered several broken bones in a motorcycle accident. Thanks to the availability of the pool for therapy in which his body weight was supported — a person submerged up to his neck in water feels a loss of 90 percent of their body weight — he was able to start therapy there and follow through all the way to his complete recovery.

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: State Sen. Gerald Hocker, left, and son Gerry are preparing to open their new grocery store at the former location of Harris Teeter, near Salt Pond.On Sunday, March 26, at 9 p.m., the doors will close for the last time at G&E Supermarket on Cedar Neck Road in Ocean View.

On Thursday, March 30, at 7 a.m. the doors will open for customers one mile to the south, at the new Hocker’s Supermarket in the Salt Pond Plaza.

Even though Jake Hocker had the store for 18 years — less time than the 46 years Gerald Hocker Sr. has been at the helm — some longtime customers still call the store “Jake’s.”

As Gerry and Gerald Hocker stood in the new store this week, contractors swarmed like bees, and the buzzing of drills punctuated the air. Four brand new self-checkout stands at the front of the store were swathed in plastic, to protect them from sawdust.